Related Research Articles
Okanagan Lake is a lake in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. The lake is 135 km (84 mi) long, between 4 and 5 km wide, and has a surface area of 348 km2.
The Okanagan, also called the Okanagan Valley and sometimes the Okanagan Country, is a region in the Canadian province of British Columbia defined by the basin of Okanagan Lake and the Canadian portion of the Okanagan River. It is part of the Okanagan Country, extending into the United States as Okanogan County in north-central Washington. According to the 2016 Canadian census, the region's population is 362,258. The largest populated cities are Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon, and West Kelowna.
SS Sicamous is a large four decked sternwheeler commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and built by the Western Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company for Okanagan Lake service between the fruit communities of Penticton, and other towns of Kelowna and Vernon, British Columbia. SS Sicamous launched in 1914, Sicamous ran for many years connecting rail lines and areas. The vessel operated until 1937 and is currently beached as a part of a heritage shipyard operated by the S.S. Sicamous Restoration Society in Penticton. The vessel today is operated both as a museum and events and banquet facility.
SS Okanagan was a steamship owned and operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway Lake and River Service. The vessel was constructed in 1906 at Okanagan Landing and launched in 1907, becoming Okanagan Lake's second steamship. She linked the transportation hubs at both the north and south ends of Okanagan Lake (Vernon and Penticton, respectively, aiding the development of interior British Columbia with other steamships of the 1900s. The ship was retired in 1934 and sold for scrap and spare parts. Only the Stern Saloon, a room in the back of the upper deck, remains. It was moved to the SS Sicamous Heritage Park in Penticton in 2002, to undergo restoration work.
Canadian National Tug no. 6 was a diesel-powered tugboat owned and operated by the Canadian National Railway (CNR) company on Okanagan Lake, British Columbia. It was launched in 1948 and transferred railway barges between Penticton and Kelowna. It was retired in 1973, becoming the last of many tugboats to operate on Okanagan Lake. Tug 6 was moved to Penticton in 2007 to rest alongside the SS Naramata and SS Sicamous, two Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) steamboats, as part of the S.S. Sicamous Inland Marine Museum. The ships are currently being restored by the S.S. Sicamous Restoration Society.
SS Kelowna was a tow boat that was operational between the years 1892–1912 on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia. It was later dismantled in Penticton.
MV Aricia was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was built in 1912 by J. Y. Campbell and was also known as the Kelowna-Westbank ferry, because she served the communities of Kelowna and Westbank, British Columbia.
MV Grace Darling was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was an early internal combustion-driven boat run by the Canadian Pacific Railway company in 1919 and was used to move building stone from the granite quarry on the lake shore south of Vernon, British Columbia. Grace Darling was Vernon Granite's first power boat and was purchased from Mrs. Oswald Pease from Ewing's Landing in 1919. She was one of the first internal combustion engine-powered boats on the lake and greatly facilitated the transport of stone barges from the quarry. Grace Darling was replaced by SS Tum Tum and a second MV Grace Darling after retirement.
MV Lequime was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. The most well-known of the long line of ferries on the lake, Lequime was built in 1947 and was later called Fintry Queen. Plans for the construction of Lequime began on May 1, 1946 and she was built in a fashion similar to the earlier MV Pendozi. Lequime carried cars and freight between the communities of Kelowna and Westbank with two other boats, MV Lloyd-Jones and Pendozi. However, the three struggled to carry the increasing load prior to the opening of the Okanagan Lake Bridge in 1958. After retirement, Lequime was renovated, a paddle wheel added to the stern, and used as a restaurant and for Okanagan Lake cruises.
MV Lloyd-Jones was a steel ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She carried cars and freight between the communities of Kelowna and West Kelowna with two other boats, MV Lequime and MV Pendozi. However, they struggled to carry the load, especially after the opening of the Okanagan Lake Bridge in 1958. Lloyd-Jones was launched in July 1950. She had a capacity of 35 cars and was the last of a large fleet of ferries on Okanagan Lake.
MV Kelowna-Westbank was a diesel-powered ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada beginning in 1927. Although private ferry service had long been established on the lake, Kelowna-Westbank became the first provincial government-operated ferry upon her launch on February 21, 1927.
MV Trepanier was a ferry that operated between the communities of Naramata and Summerland on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Trepanier was added to the Okanagan Lake Boat Company's fleet in 1912. The company's owner, Peter Roe, operated her and the earlier MV Skookum with his brothers, Fred and Gerald. Trepanier was purchased by Captain J. A. Noyes and his brother, I. R. Noyes, and used for pleasure trips until November 1913, when the larger MV Skookum, built in 1912 and not to be confused with the Skookum mentioned earlier, collided with the Canadian Pacific Railway company-operated SS Castlegar and sank. Although Trepanier was smaller than Skookum, she was used as a replacement and began regular ferry service soon after the crash.
SS Maude-Moore was a wood-burning screw steamer that provided a ferry service between the communities of Summerland, Naramata, and Penticton on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada.
MV Cygnet was a 40 feet (12 m) by 10 feet (3.0 m) motor launch that provided ferry and freight service on Skaha Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was built by Summerland Boat Works in 1911 for the South Okanagan Transportation Company, owned by James Fraser Campbell and A. S. Hatfield, to replace the tug Kaleden. Cygnet had a Fairbanks marine engine that was started by turning the flywheel with a steel bar that fitted into sockets in the wheel. In the early 1920s, she was moved to Okanagan Lake to carry fruit to Kelowna, British Columbia for a summer before she was sold in Kelowna.
SS Red Star, later called Okanagan, Lucy, and Red Star again, was a screw steamer that operated on Spallumcheen River and later Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada, serving various purposes under many owners, as well as undergoing renovations and modifications from her construction in 1887 to the closing of her registry in 1915.
SS Jubilee was the second steamship on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada, owned and operated by Captain Thomas Shorts. She was built by Shorts and carpenter John Hamilton in 1887 while they were waiting for a new boiler to come in for their first steamship, SS Mary Victoria Greenhow, which needed new machinery. When it arrived, they decided to put the new boiler in the new 30 feet (9.1 m) by 8 feet (2.4 m) Jubilee instead and they put Mary Victoria Greenhow's engine in Jubilee as well. She was launched at the Okanagan Landing shipyard at 3:30 p.m. on September 22, 1887. Jubilee took about two weeks per round trip on the lake. A gold strike on Granite Creek in the Similkameen River in 1889 created business for Jubilee and Shorts built a barge to help her. However, the strike didn't last long and the barge was then beached. Jubilee was also short-lived, as she froze in ice at Okanagan Landing during a cold spell in the winter of 1889–1890. She sank and in the spring, her machinery was put in Shorts' new barge, City of Vernon. The engine was reinstalled in several more ships, and the retired engine was used in a shingle mill for cutting firewood at Trinity Valley starting in 1906. Finally, Mr. and Mrs. G. H. Worth of Vernon, British Columbia, who had owned and used it for many years, donated it to the Vernon Museum and Archives in November 1957.
SS Mary Victoria Greenhow (MVG) was the first steamboat on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was built by Captain Thomas Shorts and Thomas Greenhow and although she was not perfect, she was the harbinger of a long and significant line of steamships in the Okanagan.
MV Pendozi was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. The provincial government commissioned her in 1939 and she was the first steel ferry built for the run connecting the communities of Kelowna and Westbank. She was 147 feet (45 m) by 42 feet (13 m) and weighed 237.5 tons. She was powered by two 150 horsepower Vivian engines and had two life boats and two life rafts, as well as four propellers, two at each end of the ship. Pendozi could carry 30 cars. Kelowna residents suggested her name after Rev. Father Charles Marie Pandosy, O.M.I., who established Okanagan Mission, British Columbia in 1859. A street in Kelowna was also named Pendozi after him and the misspelling was never changed and even applied to the new ship because it reflected the proper pronunciation of his name. In the line of Kelowna-Westbank ferries, Pendozi came after MV Kelowna-Westbank and was later joined by MV Lloyd-Jones and MV Lequime. However, the three struggled to carry the increasing load prior to the opening of the Okanagan Lake Bridge in 1958. The retired ferry was later sold to Kelowna for a dollar, moored at a city dock, and used by the sea cadets. On New Year's Eve, 1964, vandals opened the seacocks, which sank the vessel. On refloating in the early new year, Pendozi was returned to rest in Westbank, and is now the clubhouse for the Westbank Yacht Club.
MV Skookum, also known as Tut Tut, was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada starting on April 2, 1906. She was the first official, government-subsidized ferry on the lake to connect the communities of Kelowna and Westbank.
SS Wanderer was the second, unofficial ferry to serve Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada.
References
- ↑ Goett, R. Lakeboats of the Okanagan (PDF). Retrieved 20 August 2015– via Lake Country Museum.
- ↑ Fortin, Ayla (1999). "Early Ferry Transportation and the Okanagan Lake Floating Bridge". Okanagan history: Sixty-third report of the Okanagan Historical Society. pp. 122–125. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
- ↑ Hatfield, Harley R. (1992). "Commercial Boats of the Okanagan". Okanagan history. Fifty-sixth report of the Okanagan Historical Society. pp. 20–33. Retrieved 2 Aug 2015.
- ↑ Hayman, L. A. (1971) [1937]. "The Kelowna-Westbank Ferry". Reprint of report numbers 7, 8, 9, 10 of the Okanagan Historical Society. Vol. 10. pp. 39–44. Retrieved 16 August 2015.